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Saturday, February 1, 2014

Tucson Gem Show 2014 - Day 1

I'm back in Tucson (along with my mom) for the fun and interesting gem shows! We arrived this morning, had some lunch at Las Margaritas, mom got a Starbuck's mocha and then we hit the shows! Our first stop was the GIGM show at the Howard Johnson motel.

I found some beautiful lapis at Afghan Gem Jewelry. I don't know if I got the best price around but I liked Aman and found some nice polished and faceted lapis beads. Here's Aman with some of his beads in the background.

Aman from Afghan Gem Jewelry

My favorite turquoise dealer/miner Shellbone and his dad are at this show every year. I have a camera that works indoors this year so my pictures are better. Here are Shellbone, my mom and his dad (and I did not remember his dad's name and didn't think to ask! silly me!)

Shellbone has some BIG gold nuggets he and his dad got while panning in Alaska. This year they went panning in northern California and found a few more nuggets which he showed us, but they don't compare in size to Alaska nuggets.

Next we wandered around the show some more and met this very nice man, Ibrahim, from Morocco. I got some Orthoceras pendants (also from Morocco) from him.

And I just thought the size and color of this gemstone ball was stunning ... I didn't ask what the stone is and I'm not quite sure. It resembles rhodocrosite but may be pink quartz - I really should ask when I take pictures of things like this.

Our next stop was the 22nd Street show. I didn't remember if we ever went to this show but once we got inside we did see some familiar companies like Wyoming Fossils. This is a great show for fossils - all shapes and sizes. We also saw this neat art by John T. Benedict of Some Distant World. He uses parts from cars, nuts, bolts, steel and all kinds of other metal things. Where possible he designs his pieces so the moving parts can still move! He even has a button you push on that lantern fish to the right of his head so the lantern lights up! Very cool!

John T. Benedict of Some Distant World in Tucson, AZ

I stopped by Pangaea Industries to see what they had for interesting fossils and stones. I got some cool herkimer quartz rough (for a sterling or copper sandwich - details below) and an Orthoceras coaster to replace one that got broken last year at home.

We made one final stop at the Pueblo Gem show to see my favorite larimar sellers, Jens and Cynthia of Larimar Conlight. I did get some round larimar beads ... I have a soft spot for the beautiful, Caribbean blue color of larimar! I did a quick check at Yaushing Gems but none of the brios/drops pulled me in. Then I checked in at Thomas Schneider Gems and found some cool roughs in amethyst and citrine and some tumbled peridot that I'll mount in a sterling washer sandwich similar to this:

And here are the stones (not the best pictures, but they're taken in a hotel room) ...